Time Fracture
by KiraraMika101
Summary: The fabric of Naruto's world split when a demon bird from a different universe enters in. Sasuke, curious about it, abandons team hebi to search for it, believing it to be the next clue to finding Itachi. Except, he gets kidnapped on the way, and the chaos begins
1. Chapter 1

Hello, this story is my first crossover, and honestly I'm completely loving it right now. I have a lot of fun ideas for Naruto's and Inuyasha's members. Read and review please. I need to know how you like it and what I should improve on. As soon as I get them, I'll post more chapters. So, make sure you review!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Inuyasha and do not intend to steal the owner's credit in any way.

Warning Ship Notes: Also, sorry, but if I do any kind of ships it will be by the characters opinions. I won't force my characters.

Chapter 1

Emptiness.

That was what Sasuke Uchiha felt inside when he allowed himself to think about personal things.

Especially when those personal things were pointless and stupid.

"But Sasuke-kun! I _know_ you could be happy if you'd just give me- _us_ -a chance!" Karin squealed, her dark eyes wide and daring on him. Sasuke resisted the urge to roll his eyes. She seemed to totally ignore the fact that he was hardly paying attention to her.

The two ninjas were standing in a small clearing of the Sound forest, facing each other, or, rather Karin facing the back of Sasuke's shirt.

Even when she'd been yapping nonstop in his ear about the "something important" she wanted to say a few moments before, honestly when she said she wanted to talk alone and the other teammates left them he'd begun to tune her out.

Now, he supposed he was paying for that brief moment of quiet distance.

"You don't have to be alone with us," the girl was still talking. "You can be with me." she ended that with a bright twinkle in her eye.

It took her exactly forty five seconds to explain her pitch.

A small chord hit Sasuke's gut at her words, like a mocking sting from how much they rang familiarity. However, they felt even more bitter coming from the obsessed kunoichi.

He turned sharply on her in the forest she'd led them to, his glare like hot coals.

Karin was too startled to jump.

"Who gives a damn about that?" He spoke harshly. "I am not someone you can claim with your disgusting advances. And I have nothing to give you."

If only she were like Sakura. The red-haired girl did not react to his dangerous tone and there was not a tear in her eye. She just smiled sheepishly at him and bowed her head. "I knew you'd say something like that, least I tried," she chuckled sorrowfully.

Sasuke made to turn around. What a waste of time. He hadn't seen much of Karin lately, due to the fact that he ignored his comrade in favor for his goals, but he knew that each time he acknowledged her she would always try to "target" him. He felt so dumb thinking what she wanted to say was anything different.

"And Karin," the Uchiha stopped, eyes never moving from ahead. "Trick me again about Itachi's whereabouts and you'll receive no mercy from me." Then he turned back to look at her, glaring. "Annoyance comes with a price."

Karin looked struck, even knowing how cruel he could be. Behind her dark glasses she finally looked ready to cry.

Sasuke did not smile with triumph, but he walked away with a relative peace of mind as he began to search for the rest of the members of his team.

"I'm not done yet, Sasuke." The girl spoke up again. He didn't even get five feet away.

Sasuke could feel his right eyebrow twitch and stopped to turn his head.

Karin had an unreadable look on her face.

"I saw you earlier today. You were really upset with everyone. I thought if I got you alone I could cheer you up, but..."

Sasuke narrowed his eyes at her. His head had been hurting all day since he first woke up and he was pissed the team lost the lead on Itachi last week, but he made sure to keep those feelings to himself. It seemed, however, that when one was around someone like Karin, keeping to yourself was pointless.

Yet, he felt his anger at her dissipate a little as he turned toward her.

"Saying such things to me is useless, Karin. I have said that once already."

Karin jolted, her eyes alight with determination. "Yes, but, Sasuke! I really _can_ make you happy. Sasuke...," The red-haired girl's face suddenly changed, and her red-pink eyes went heavy with longing. When she spoke, her boyish-sounding voice went even deeper. Though, Sasuke was sure her intention was not meant to sound like one.

"You work too hard. Haven't you ever thought of taking it easy once in a while?" Her thighs began to rub together. "Give yourself a little pleasure?"

Sasuke's eyes lowered at her blushing face. "What are you implying?"

Those words seemed to give her the courage to move. She smiled easily and began to take slow steps to him, closing the short distance.

Her voice went even deeper as her lips puckered out in a pout.

Sasuke never moved, but he was silently starting to get the willies when her hand reached out to touch him.

"I want to-" Karin halted in a choked gasp, and sharply lifted her arms in a comical way. Her head snapped back to follow as she let out a strangled shout.

Sasuke felt his mind prickle with surprise at the abrupt change in the girl's attitude, thinking she was frustrated with him, until he heard a harsh cawing sound above his head.

 _Hm?_ He thought, and calmly looked up to see a crow flying away from them. At least, he thought it was a crow.

It looked more like a demon with three red eyes and a too long tail.

 _Wait, three eyes?!_

As it swooped over their heads and away, Sasuke gradually remembered Karin, and gave her his attention.

There was something monstrously white on her head, a weak stench that made him put a hand to his nose coming off it.

Karin was still shrieking with disgust.

"Ewwww! What the hell happened! Did I just get pooped on!?"

Her face was all screwed up, more pleasant to Sasuke than her face before the incident, despite the situation.

"Calm down," Sasuke said nonchalantly as he watched the girl twitch her fingers over her head. She didn't know what it was, but she wasn't about to touch it.

"There was a bird."

"A bird!" cried Karin. She gave Sasuke an incredulous look. "Who cares what it was! How do I get it out of my hair!?"

Sasuke wasn't paying attention to her anymore, however. He was more focused on the strange crow that had circled back around and was now perched on the tree near him. It stared at him with its terrible three-eyed existence as Sasuke watched it in return.

 _What the hell is it?_

For as far as he could tell there had never been birds that had three eyes in the Sound forest. In fact, there were never crows with three eyes in all of the Shinobi world. Which meant it really was a demon.

"That thing has an unusually high amount of chakra." Karin's rough voice spoke up, sounding calm.

Sasuke looked back at her. Karin's ability to sense chakra far exceeded Neji's and Hinata's. Along with her healing powers, those were the main reasons he tolerated her as much as he did. When she wasn't torturing him with her love issues, she was pretty cool. Right then, her eyes were on the bird, a hand on her hip and a serious face on. It looked weird with her new hairdo.

"You smell." Sasuke took the moment to say, and Karin's straight face blanched.

"I know that!" She yelled at him, her fist in his face. "I don't need your input!" He smirked inwardly. Annoying.

"Caa" the crow cried, pulling both of their attentions back to it as it began to spread its dark wings.

Its chakra was unusual, Karin told him. That piqued his interest even more with the creature.

Sasuke reached across his hip to pull out his sword, unsheathing it with his eyes trained on the bird.

"Sasuke," Karin spoke up quickly. "What are you going to do? This 'bird' is obviously not normal. You could do something you'll regret later."

Sasuke flitted his eyes to her, not raising from his stance. The girl was too annoying for words.

"I am going to catch the creature. Whatever happens to me is my business, not yours."

Then he jumped, quickly disappearing from Karin's side to hang in the air right in front of the unsuspecting crow.

It squawked when it realized Sasuke, and started to move, but it never got the chance.

Or, wouldn't have if Juugo hadn't barreled into Sasuke from out of nowhere.

"Oof!" Both men fell hard to the ground, Juugo's heavy weight on top of Sasuke.

"Off." He commanded as Juugo stammered his apologies and tried to scramble up.

When the big man stood, he held out an embarrassed hand to his teammate.

"Sorry, Sasuke! I wasn't paying attention to where I was going!"

Suigetsu's laugh sounded near Sasuke's head.

"What a loser! And you were so close to beating me, too!" He kept laughing.

Karin came running toward them.

"Sasuke, are you alright!? I saw what happened and I know Juugo can feel like a rock when he lands on you!"

"Hmm?" Suigetsu said thoughtfully. "And how well do you know his body, Karin?"

Karin gave him a straight-faced death stare.

"Do you want to die early, Suigetsu?"

Juugo looked away, embarrassed about them talking about him and for Suigetsu's sake.

To the white-haired boy's credit, he only laughed again.

Sasuke wasn't listening to his teammates. He was currently staring up at the empty spot the demon bird flew from.

"W-were you about to kill something, Sasuke?" Juugo asked, watching him.

Sasuke turned to look at him, and then his other teammates.

Juugo, the origin of the curse mark he himself carried, was the most successful in combat. What, with his murder tendencies. However, if Sasuke wanted him to do something as simple as catching a bird, he had to dismiss him. The brute would scare it off. On the other hand, Suigetsu might be better in helping him capture it. His water techniques were undeniably accurate. Karin was not bad, either. She could find its chakra signature before its physical form.

However, the team couldn't get along, and taking one of them was just asking for trouble.

He stood and dusted himself off, sheathing his Katana with a wail of metal sliding against metal, and started to walk toward the direction he glimpsed the thing fly off in.

"I'm going to look for the bird. You all stay here."

Karin and Suigetsu stopped glaring at each other to gape at Sasuke's back.

"Sasuke, wait!" wailed Karin. Suigetsu followed her running footsteps. "Yeah, I'm sticking with you!" He exclaimed toward Sasuke.

He stopped, waiting for their footfalls to halt behind him, and turned his head to the side to glare.

"I said stay," Sasuke said evenly. "You will only scare the creature away with your bickering."

"But, Sasuke-" Karin started to say. Sasuke interrupted, though, eyes facing forward again. "I don't have need for you at the moment. I will soon, however."

He knew this got to Karin because her blushing was palpable on his back. And that wasn't even possible.

"Aww, Sasuke," she gushed. "I guess waiting for you isn't that bad. I have to do some things for myself anyway, so it would be really inconvenient for me to come along right now."

Sasuke knew he would regret his words later. He sighed and began to walk again.

"Hey, wait, Sasuke!" cried Suigetsu. Sasuke grunted with frustration, but turned without comment.

Suigetsu was giving him a hard stare.

"You can't bribe me with your good looks," he said. "So how are you going to keep _me_ busy?" Karin was back in the clearing with Juugo so Suigetsu was lucky she didn't hear that from him.

Sasuke thought for a minute, pissing the white-haired boy off.

"You're really thinking about it!? What happened to working as a team?" he said, shark teeth frowning.

Sasuke gave him a leveled stare. He was impatient to go find the crow, as he felt he needed to because of its unusualness alone, but also because he felt something similar to it.

And it connected firmly with his goal of vengeance.

"This is something I must do alone, Suigetsu. I will not risk a lead on Itachi, however brief, to slip away from me. You will only get in my way."

Suigetsu laughed to fill the hurt in his voice. "Ha, you really don't like nice words, do you? Alright," the man said, putting his arms behind his head with a smile. "If you want to go find some crazy animal in the woods, fine, but don't come calling for help if a dude walks up on you and knocks you out."

Sasuke smirked his acknowledgment, and turned toward the trees.

His eyes flashed red with Sharingan before he disappeared, leaving only a puff of leaves in his wake.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

"Hee hee hee, what a beautiful place,"

A drunken frog said, admiring the shining green leaves of the forest around him. To his right was a river that flowed quickly down a hill, and surrounding him were flowers of all shapes and colors. Pink, blue, orange... So beautiful.

The frog stumbled against a fallen log, blushing his apologies at its branches when it smacked his butt.

 _What a perverted tree,_ he thought as he straightened and moved away from the slightly wanted attention. He was still blushing when he heard a loud rustling sound behind him and turned sloppily to see what the disturbance was.

"Huh?" He asked as if the rustling called him by name. Then he went cross eyed at the body in his face that wasn't there before.

"Whoa! What the-" he shouted and stumbled back onto his butt, mouth wide with shock.

"Relax," the body said in a low voice. "I won't hurt you unless you give me a reason to."

A gloved hand lay resting casually on the butt of a sword on his side, and the frog raised his eyes up into the person's face.

It was a beautiful boy's face.

 _Wowzers!_ Exclaimed the frog as he scrambled up to his feet. The boy was taller than him by a head and a half so the frog only reached his chest. But boy was that chest sexy. Open more exposed than anyone's the frog ever encountered, he stared at it like it was the only thing there.

"Yo," said the boy, startling the frog to look up.

The boy's deep dark eyes stared into his racing heart so enticingly, and the bland look on his perfect white face was intoxingly rude.

"What are you staring at?"

The frog quickly backed up, hands out and waving in nervous protest.

"Ah! No, I wasn't staring or anything," he blurted. "I'm more of a lady's man!"

Then his eyes dropped down to his creamy looking chest again.

 _Oh Gods, but for that, I'll gladly turn gay!_

The wind chose that moment to rush between the two men, and it picked up the other boy's bangs, having the frog swoon suddenly for dark hair on his ownscalp.

The boy narrowed his eyes.

"Who are you?" he said in an authoritative yet distant manner, making the frog frown at his tone. He was beautiful, yes, more beautiful than anyone else he came across in this strange land, but his voice held so much flatness. That was not so sexy.

"Er," began the frog nervously. "I am Tsukumo no Gama, a demon, if you will, and I woke up here."

"A demon?" asked the boy. One of his perfect eyebrows were raised.

"You're a talking frog."

Gama balked at that. _He_ could call himself a talking frog, but not anyone else!

"I'm a _demon_ frog! Gama from the Kai province! I'll have you know I'm one to be feared by all!"

However, the beautiful boy continued to give him a lazy 'you're useless' look.

"I am looking for a bird that has the same stench as you do. Where did it go off too?"

 _Stench!?_ "Bird?" asked Gama aloud. The only bird he knew was that Shigaragu who woke up next to him earlier in the day. It totally cock-blocked him.

"I have reason to believe its a demon like you." The boy added absentmindedly.

Gama grunted, sensing he had something the pretty boy wanted, and delighted in it.

"Well," Gama said slyly, idling closer to the boy. His face flushed from being so close to his silky-looking chest, and continued. "I could tell you all about it...for a price."

The boy's dark eyes narrowed. His grip tightened seemingly unconsciously on his sword. "I don't have time for games. Where is the bird?" He demanded in the same tone as before. It made Gama feel furious. No one, no matter how hot, has ever been so unaffected by his presence.

At least, not humans. And this boy clearly was one of them. So, why did he not flinch?

"You're a strange one," said Gama distractedly. "The people I met here all seemed to fear me, as they should, but not you. Who _are_ you?!"

The boy looked distantly upset, but a whole lot annoyed.

"If you won't tell me what I want to know I'll leave you here."

And with that the boy started walking past him.

Gama froze, feeling sudden queasiness and lost take hold of his short form. He suddenly felt very horrible thinking of such a beauty slipping past his webby fingers. He couldn't let that hunk go!

"Wait!" Gama shouted spinning towards him. In his rush to stop him the frog slammed into his back. The boy didn't turn around, but he sighed distressingly.

"If it is not about the bird I don't want to hear it."

Distantly Gama thought of how strong his back would be to support his hands as they took it to the next level, and rubbed his sore nose.

"I have a proposition for you," he said, earning a glare from his future lover.

The frog squealed inside with glee.

"I will tell you where the bird is if you let me travel with you."

The boy gave him the narrowed gaze he knew he'd receive, and continued.

"Here me out, you're looking for this creature and know nothing about it. Not anything to help you search for it, not what it eats, what it likes to drink, or play around with. On the other hand, I do."

Finally the boy's interest was piqued. He looked at Gama somewhat better.

"What good does it do for you to follow along with me?"

Ah! Gama felt really nervous now. The boy hit it on the nail.

"Ah,um, just...cause..." Then he thought of a good idea. "You can tour me around, show me the sights. I'm new here, after all."

"I have something important to do. Touring someone is not on the list." deadpanned the dark-haired boy.

"You don't have to be obligated to show me around or anything," said Gama quickly. "I can figure things out myself and I'll be ok with wherever you go. You can just think of me as a companion who wants nothing in return." He sort of wavered on 'nothing', but rather hoped the boy didn't notice.

The boy's glare told him he did notice, but chose to speak on a different topic, much to Gama's relief.

"Tell me what I want to know first."

"Ah,ah,ah, not so fast." Gama chuckled. "You may not keep your end of the bargain if I tell you-"

He felt a sudden oppressive aura coming off the boy at his words, and the frog shivered in fear, but kept going. "-but," he squeaked. "If you want to know that much, I can show you where it is."

Gama moved to rush forward, despite his drunken stupor, to hold his story as long as he could. Even though he knew he didn't know the first thing to finding that damn bird.

He had to think of another idea fast. And soon.

"Stop."

The boy said several minutes into their search. Well, the _boy's_ search. All Gama had been able to find was the leaves under his feet.

The frog slowed down before they got closer to the small villages beyond them, and turned sheepishly to stare at the dark-eyed boy.

The boy's face was as blank as ever, but Gama knew how much he was holding in his anger. It said so in the way his body was tensed.

"You don't know where the bird is."

Oh. _That_ was what they were looking for. Truthfully, the frog had forgotten in his excitement of leading the boy to the villages.

"Ah...no." countered Gama. "I'm a demon, so we can,like, sense our smells and stuff. The bird went-"

The boy started to walk back into the forest, ignoring him.

No!

"Hey, wait-!"

The boy whirled on him.

Now his face matched his aura definitely.

"You have wasted my time with your ignorance. The deal is off," he seethed.

This was it. Gama forced his hands back, trying to keep calm and watch the boy walk away. But, it was hard. He didn't get to ask him his name, or get to know him just a little. It wasn't right to let him go.

Gama stared forlornly at his clothed broad back, a tiny fan between his shoulder blades. It looked like a crest of some sort, colored red on one side and white on the other.

And it would be the only thing Gama would get to remember him by.

It was a good thing he wasn't a demon for nothing.

As the sinister-forming thoughts took hold of the slimy frog, he grinned wide.

The boy was almost near the tree line when Gama stopped him with a sharp whistle.

The boy turned to him, annoyance on his handsome face.

"I told you-"

Gama was nowhere to be seen.

He stood still for only a second, looking as if he was listening for his movements, but Gama was smarter than that.

As soon as the boy moved again, Gama burst from a nearby tree and landed straight on his face. He wrapped his skinny arms and legs around his head and held on tight.

"Mrmff!"

The boy's mouth vibrated against his tummy as he tried to pull him off and spit curses at the same time, but the vibrations felt so good he clung tighter.

 _Mm, more. Morrrrre!_

On his pleasure high for only a few moments as he was whacked around in the air, Gama finally sucked in his breath as much as he could, and spat out a ball of putrid masma.

It filled the air in a swirl of black fog and coated the vicinity around him and the boy, shielding them from view. The boy stiffened from what he perceived was happening and halted.

 _Come on, come on, work!_

Gama thought in his head as he noticed the boy reaching quickly for his sword.

 _If he gets that sword out I'm done for!_

Finally the masma took effect. As the boy touched his fingertips to his hilt, they twitched and stiffened. Gama imagined the numbness taking over the boy, flowing into all seven points of his body, and finally, knocking him out completely cold.

He felt the shift in the dark-haired boy's body as he began to fall, and Gama quickly hopped off.

He landed on his feet, the boy landed on his side.

Gama had the victory.

"So, how come you got bird dookie on your head," asked Suigetsu, breaking Juugo's hard-won silence. "You makin it the new style?"

The chaos Juugo calmed down five seconds ago ensued again.

Juugo grabbed the bridge of his nose with frustration as they resumed their bickering.

The three members of team Hebi were chilling out, waiting for Sasuke after he left to hunt down some sort of animal. It had been an hour since he left, and during that time Juugo sort of took over the leadership of the group. At least, that was what Juugo wanted to believe. In reality, the squad was blatantly disobeying Sasuke's orders, and were now deep in the forest looking for him.

However, they weren't even doing that right. Ignoring Juugo's attempts to calm the two down, Suigetsu and Karin kept arguing with each other.

"What in the hell is wrong with you!? Who would make this a 'new style'?"

Karin shouted at him now, pink-red eyes blazing behind her glasses.

The bird poop on her head from an hour ago seemed to stand out against her red hair, having crusted over in time. Now it was pure white instead of its original colored transparency, and it was Suigetsu's newest bully method.

Suigetsu looked playfully away from her, reacting to her earlier question,and acted bored with the conversation.

"I don't know," he shrugged. "Like girl trending and stuff."

"Ugh! Die!" Karin screamed.

The white haired boy laughed before her fist connected with his head, forcing his substitute water jutsu. His head reformed in a second.

Karin glared at him. "I wish you could feel pain."

"I do feel pain." He replied mockingly and stabbed his heart with a finger. His face was scrunched up in a pretend play of hurt. "In here."

Karin spun away from him on her heel, the awful smell of crow poop filling the other two's nostrils.

Juugo tried not to close his hand over his nose.

He honestly didn't want to have any part in the situation of Karin's hair, but the poop in her hair really did make him think rather mean thoughts about her.

She should have just washed it out after Sasuke left instead of arguing,once again, with Suigetsu.

Unfortunately, the former victim of Orochimaru's experiments were thinking the same thing, and he was not going to keep quiet about it.

"I don't understand why you couldn't just wash it out while we were back in that clearing, Karin," Suigetsu started up again, ignoring Juugo's sharp inhale behind him. Suigetsu,please!

"Making googling eyes at Sasuke made you forget about yourself again,huh?"

"Shut up, Suigetsu!" She shouted in ahead of them without turning around.

He did-for two seconds.

"God, you smell like shit!"

"Gahhhhh!" screamed Karin, and she made a u-turn for Suigetsu, who was laughing his arse off and reaching casually for the large sword on his back.

Juugo realized the situation quick, and reacted just in time before Suigetsu and Karin clashed.

Both ninjas gasped on each side of him, the hate in their eyes vanishing in place for surprise.

Suigetsu's sword was embedded deep within Juugo's back, while Juugo clutched Karin's knife-like hand, pins and needles in his stomach from the points of where her fingers dug into him.

"Juugo!" They exclaimed.

"Stop it." He coughed up blood. Actually, his body felt really hot with it by now.

"Or _I'll_ kill you."

Juugo could feel it now. His old friend, the curse. And as he felt the rush of familiar power, the people he was forced to work with wisely started to back up, seeing the dark pattern of the curse mark crawling up his skin.

"I told you to be quiet!" Juugo yelled as he felt the peak of his strength.

"Dammit, Suigetsu!" Juugo heard Karin's shout to his left, and turned to her. He really wished Sasuke was there to control his urges. Blood was all he cared about now.

"Rahhh!" He shouted angrily, and rushed for the red-haired girl through his blood-lust.

Karin made a face, and turned around to run away from him. He crashed through the overgrowth like a mountain lion.

"Get back here, woman!" Juugo shouted after her.

He wanted to feel the life leave her body through his teeth, taste her blood gush in his mouth...

"Oh my Gods, Sasuke!"

Exclaimed Karin in horror, who was paused right in front of Juugo.

 _Sasuke!?_

Juugo tried to stop his momentum before he hit her, but veered off into a tree at the last moment.

He smacked into it with a loud booming noise, shaking it and him, and scaring away the plants' inhabitants within a ten mile radius.

A second later someone landed beside him, laughing.

"Oh my gods, Juugo, nice save!"

Suigetsu...

He muttered in his head with annoyance, his face still squashed against the tree bark.

However, he didn't feel like killing him. Which meant his curse mark receded away. Which meant...

 _Sasuke!_

Juugo leapt up, all pain he could have felt hitting that tree if he were normal gone, and he ran to Karin's side.

"Sasuke!?" He cried, looking around for him. Not seeing anyone or thing but the forest, he turned to Karin.

"Where is he-"

He stopped, staring at her horror-stricken face. And then down at the dirty white shirt in her arms. On the back was the Uchiha crest, a red and white fan.

"That's Sasuke's..." his voice shook.

"What's the silence of doom for, guys?"

Suigetsu called from behind them, strolling to where they stood.

"I promise I won't try to kill the girl if she admits she likes Sasuke, all right?"

Karin was muttering to herself, though, completely ignoring him.

Juugo leaned in closer to here her better.

"That damn bird couldn't have taken him. Its chakra was strong, but Sasuke could have easily overpowered it."

 _That bird from before? The one Sasuke wanted to look for?_

"Hey, guys!" Suigetsu interrupted again, loud. "Are you listening to m-"

The white-haired boy finally got close enough to see what Karin held in her hands, and he stopped, looking dumbfounded.

"What the hell do you have Sasuke's shirt for?" He demanded Karin. "You guys doin things behind our back!?"

Both her and Juugo turned their annoyed stares on him, and he grinned too wide.

"Stupid question, huh?" He laughed nervously with an embarrassed blush.

Karin smirked.

"When we do, you'll be the first to know." she said, earning a disturbed face from Suigetsu. Juugo, too, hoped Karin never got her way with Sasuke.

She was too weird.

As if feeling the need to prove his point, Karin began sniffing Sasuke's shirt, then the air, with a very purpose driven face.

"I smell foreign chakra coming off his clothes," she told them, eyes forward. "And it's coming from that direction."

Juugo followed her pointing finger to the stand of trees in front of them. And between the branches of the group on the left, Juugo could see a glimpse of swirling blue in the way.

"What is that?" Suigetsu spoke, stealing Juugo's own thoughts. He was looking in the same direction, his hand like a shield over his eyes as he squinted.

"Is that part of the sky?"

"No, you dope," Karin was saying with a haughty atmosphere. "It looks too blue to be the sky."

"So you don't know what it is, either?"

Suigetsu cut into her. Like a pin popping a balloon, Karin's haughty air dissipated.

"Shut up, Suigetsu." she muttered. But Juugo wasn't worried she'd try and hit him right then.

He started for the blue stuff.

"Come on, if that stuff is connected to Sasuke we got to go see what it is!"

It took a moment, but finally he heard his other teammates move to follow him.

Two minutes, and they stood in front of it.

"Wow," said Suigetsu, sounding impressed. "Its cool."

Juugo watched the large circular opening actively turning its blue substance inside, a low humming sound coming from it as if the round thing functioned like a machine.

Karin, beside Juugo with a hand on her hip, leaned closer to it. Absently, he noticed Sasuke's shirt was nowhere to be found.

"There's no doubt about it that this is probably where whatever took Sasuke led him through, but I can't smell him anymore."

"Maybe if we go through it you could pick up his scent again." Juugo suggested, feeling weird about using "Sasuke" and "scent" in the same sentence.

Karin stared at him. "Go through it? We don't even know what it _is."_

Suigetsu sighed suddenly, putting his head over his head and turning around.

"This is getting pretty boring. The guy's gone,right? What's the point in wasting our time finding him? He's the one who needed _us,_ remember?"

Karin narrowed her eyes at his back.

"What are you saying, Suigetsu?"

Juugo was interested, too.

The shark-teethed boy shrugged at them both.

"Just sayin we're not indebted to look for him. We can find other ways to get to our goals."

As he said that last part his dark eyes cut to Karin, the depths dancing with taunts.

To her credit, Karin's face remained unreadable.

"You understand that more than anyone, don't cha, lover girl?"

Juugo was enraged. He smacked Suigetsu across the face before Karin could say a word or lift a finger to defend herself, surprising everyone.

The cracking sound resounded everywhere.

Suigetsu slowly raised a hand to his red cheek, neck crooked from the force, and he looked disarmingly at Juugo.

"I was so surprised I forgot to use my jutsu." He said after a stiff moment. "Where did that come from?"

To be honest, Juugo was as surprised as them that he would lift his hand out of the curse mark state. He was usually a gentleman when he wasn't out of his mind.

He stared down at his hand, muttering an apology. "Sorry. You were talking badly about Sasuke, and I just..."

Juugo looked up, near tears. "Team Hebi wouldn't be team Hebi without you, Suigetsu! Sasuke picked us for a reason!"

Suigetsu glowered at this. "What the hell? Are you a baby? Can't you see that if we continue forward we could be killed?"

He waved dramatically at the pool of magic.

"What if this is a trap set by Orochimaru for one of his experiments again? You know, using the three of us wasn't good enough the first time so lets try a little sneak attack? Or, worse, how do you know this isn't Konoha's ninjas behind this?"

Juugo was at a loss for words. The white-haired boy looked ragged and upset for saying so much in one go. However, Juugo couldn't let Sasuke go just because of that. He was definitely in trouble and as his friends, they should be willing to save him no matter what.

He wasn't alone in that line of thought. Karin got in his face, yelling at him.

"Sasuke is one of us,you dummy!"

Suigetsu, usually one to keep his cool in the face of anger, blanched.

"You two are _closer_ than us!"

Juugo jerked, gasping at her. He knew how hard it was for the girl to admit that. She was always wanting to be real close to Sasuke.

Suigetsu knew that too.

He looked at her steadily. And grinned his shark-teeth.

"What a bunch of sentimental fools you all became. And I have reason to believe it was because of that Konoha born idiot we now have to save."

Juugo's eyes widened at that.

"So that means you're with us?" He asked hopefully.

Suigetsu gagged in response, shoving Karin's face away from him.

"Move, Shit-head. It smells worse now."

And went to stand in front of the blue hole.

He sighed long and hard, his back to them, until finally he spoke again.

"That's what I said." He answered Juugo. Then he turned to look at Karin, who was angrily rubbing her face where he touched her.

"And for the record," he grinned. "We're not that close."


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

"I thought we were supposed to be ninjas!" cried Naruto. "Whoever heard of cleaning old people's wells as a ninja mission, huh?"

Sakura, cleaning out her own well, pulled out of it and wiped her brow, glaring with annoyance at her friend.

He was busy talking inside his well, scrubbing with the long stick their sensei provided for them, with his butt sticking out of the opening. His voice was amplified by the deep tunnel of the well, turning the already annoying boy into a loudspeaker for all to hear.

Neji growled over at his well beside Hinata, who was blushing at the sight of Naruto's arse.

"Naruto, be quiet. You've been going on about that ever since we got here,"

He tried to sound calm when speaking to the thick-headed boy, but Sakura could hear the barely contained anger coming off him in waves.

"Don't you think we're suffering as much as you?"

She knew it was because of the July heat blazing down their backs that the usually cool ninja was acting like this. It made even her want to shout at Naruto. Or scream in frustration.

Naruto pulled out of his well, then, his blue eyes glinting dangerously with equal feeling.

"Oh, I'm sorry Mr. Boy Genius. Did I forget you're too good for this mission? Oh, wait, you're _working_ _here_ _too!"_ He barked.

Neji glowered at him.

"Naruto," began Sakura. "That doesn't even make sense."

However, she understood Naruto's anger about the job. More than the heat they had to work in, cleaning as a ninja mission at their ages was potential-wasting.

And it was some dirty old wells they were cleaning.

The group was cleaning for an old woman by the name of Jing. She had five wells in total buried deep in the backyard, separated rather randomly and spaced widely apart. And to make matters worse, _all_ of the structures were covered in grime and dirt. In the middle of the blazing July sun.

It was nice for Kakashi, Guy, and Kurenai sensei. All they had to do was assign their selected members as a joint group and depart from them for some "important matters" in Konoha. Even the old woman herself was chilling inside her home, laughing at their sweaty backs!

It didn't matter to any of them if the chunin ninjas and one genin died from boredom and heat stroke!

 _Ok, Sakura. Chill. You're acting like Naruto. The senseis know what their doing._

Except they've been gone for fifteen minutes, and didn't seem to be coming back.

 _When they said two hours they meant it!_ Sakura couldn't help but think after another wave of heat washed over her. Even as she knew there was never an assigned mission that took less than an hour.

The thought of staying for so long,however, made Sakura's head hurt.

"Just try to get along Naruto," she said now, feeling too tired to do much than glare at him five feet away from her.

"I think if Guy sensei chose Lee instead of Neji, we'd actually get things done around here," muttered Naruto. But he made the mistake of saying that into his well, and everyone heard him loud and clear.

Especially Neji.

"Naruto," he said sharply. Sakura felt her sweat-feeling armpits start to itch for her friend when he whipped up his head to Neji, surprised.

Neji started for him, his Byakugan out and ready to rip a certain boy in an orange jumpsuit into bloody strips.

Hinata quickly flew from her well to block his way. "Neji stop! We're supposed to work as a team!"

"Get out of my way, Hinata. If this despicable boy wants to test my patience he'll get what he asks for!"

"Whoa, Neji, chill out!" cried Naruto in a hurry. He was backing up fast. "I was just being a brat, ok?"

 _Oh great. Now Neji's turned into a hot-aired idiot._

Sakura had to do something fast.

"Guys!" the pink-haired kunoichi started to shout, moving to step away from her well.

Then she halted, cut off by a hard yank on her arm.

 _Huh?_

She looked down at it, scowling.

And her eyes grew big at the white hand holding her arm from the darkness of the well.

"Ahhh!" She screamed, whacking at the strong grip with her free hand and doing an antsy dance of terror at the same time.

"Sakura!" She heard Naruto exclaim between her screams.

"Get it off! Get it off!"

"What the hell is that!?" said Naruto by her side in an instant. He stared dumbstruck at the pale slender hand squeezing Sakura's arm.

"A hand!?"

"Naruto, don't just stand there!" Sakura shouted with tears in her eyes. "Get it _off_ me!"

"Alright, hold still," began Naruto, and hesitantly reached out for it.

"Naruto!" Sakura screamed, more angry now at his weak attempts than afraid for her life now.

Naruto jumped. "I'm tryin, I'm tryin," He said. Then Sakura felt it yank on her again, and she nearly fell in.

"Whaaah!" She cried in tears, grabbing the rim of the well as she was forced to bend her waist. Her upper body felt the cold air of the water structure as the hand continued to try to pull her in.

A whisper of a voice rose up from the depths of the well, then, floating into Sakura's ears as the arm continued to yank with more urgency.

 _Help me...want...power...delicious girl._ Granny Jing definitely should have checked her wells over the years. This was a whole new level of dirty!

"Hey!" shouted Naruto, and wrapped his arms around her waist. It was a good thing he did too, her feet were leaving the ground.

"Stop!" she yelled at the hand, hoping, although impossible, that somewhere six feet below the owner of the arm could hear her and was really understanding.

"Gah!" squawked Naruto as he began to get pulled too. Well, so much for being understanding. Distantly, she was surprised how whatever the thing was in the well could be so strong. Could reach them all the way up here.

"Hey, Hinata," Sakura heard Naruto rumble against her back. "Neji, a little help here!"

"gods, will you stop playing around for once-" Neji began, until he seemed to see the situation and stopped in his tracks.

Sakura tried to raise her eyes at him, but anytime she moved she would move forward into the well.

"Erk, Neji, Hinata, we're being pulled in! Will one of you help us and the other go get our senseis?"

Neji would have answered, but as soon as Sakura heard his voice, the arm seemed to gain sudden strength from out of nowhere and dragged Sakura and Naruto down like they were nothing.

They screamed as they fell, their whole selves enveloped by the cool air of the well, but didn't go further as Hinata grabbed Naruto's waist and Neji grabbed hers, stopping their progress again.

"What is going on!" Neji shouted outside of the well. He was the only one keeping all of them from falling to their deaths. Hinata was halfway inside already and Sakura and Naruto were hanging in the well's frigid air. So close to the water, Sakura could hear it trickling mockingly and smell the ancient old scent.

All the while the arm was still pulling Sakura's arm. She could feel all of their hearts beating fast and hard in rhythm, everyone close to death. Her determination to get them out however, overpowered her fear.

"Neji!" Sakura shouted up at him, her voice echoing against the well's walls. She winced at the insistent pull, like the hand was daring her to say another word.

 _Help...please...Sakura..._

The whisper surrounded Sakura like a second skin, and it sounded so broken, so forlorn. Louder than before.

She widened her eyes to it, turning to the direction of the voice with a dazed feeling in her mind.

"Sakura, what are you doing?! Stop that!"

 _Naruto's voice..._

Screaming filled Sakura's ears then, and multiple white hands shot out to grab her shoulders, her face, her hair. And together as a collective force, they pulled her all the way, and her friends along with her. She didn't care. Couldn't.

"Sakura!" They screamed.

She opened her mouth to form the first two syllables of his name, not believing her mind.

 _Sasu..._

Sakura blacked out.


End file.
